August 28, 1973
Page 25
DuHamel leads the first tum.
three when Baumann eased himself into
and Nixon passed DuHamel going
mto tum one to take over and lead until
the fmish.
Baumann circujted once more and
then became the first of many riders to
en ter the pi IS without leaving.
Baumann's gear lever fell off - scratcb
one Kaw. Behind Nixon, DuHamel was
charging hard a good distance ahead of
Wilvert and Calvin with Cliff Carr trying
,to move up and being chased by
Roberts and Scott. The rest of the field
w.as far b.ehind, led by Ron Grant, Gary
F,sher, JIm Evans, Conrad Urbanowski
and Castro.
By lap seven the heart break really
began for Kawasaki as Cliff Carr rolled
~nto the grass near the pits with a flat
me and two laps later DuHamel called it
quits with a "Wave of his arms in disgust
as his engine quit. Calvin motored
happily in third behind Wilvert.
F o~ a while it looked as if Harley was
back. In the hunt until Cal quit with a
bl?wn clutch two laps later. Hurley
Wllvert stopped two laps after that with
an undisclosed problem. .
Suddenly on lap sixteen Nixon was
thirty plus seconds ahead of Ken Roberts
in second with Gary Fisher, Gary Scott
~d Jim Evans filling the top five.
NIXon kept the gas on, maintaining the
gap and turning consistent lap times as
he sliced through traffic, eating up the
track, Grant and Castro were banging it
0';1t with Urb~owski holding close, a
trio that prOVIded the closest racing of
~ird
the last half bf the event. Back further
Reg Pridmore was scooting his booming
BMW ahead of Steve McLaughlin in a
private tussle. The top five places
remained the same to the flag with
Grant holding onto sixth ahead of
Castro, Urbanowski, Pridm.ore and
McLaughlin.
The Nixon, Roberts and Fisher finish
didn't appear to be spectacular until
you realize that Fisher moved up 29
spots to take his place in the winner's
circle, Roberts shifted the last four laps
without a clutch (the cable broke), and
Nixon ran out of gas and seized two
hundred yards from the finish! That's
three in a row for the Inr Kanemoto
prepared bikes and they're looking to
make it six.
Someone asked Nixon about being
over the hill in the post race
press
conference to which he replied, "I'm
ten years younger than a lot of the good
guys". Better watch out 'cause there's
another Nixon on the way - Gary Jr. and he's as slick as his dad. Who else
would kick Ken Roberts in the shin in
the winner's circle?
•
Results:
EXPERT: 1. Gary Nixon (Kaw); 2. Ken
Roberts (v~m); 3. Qary Fish... (Vllm); 4. Jim
Evans (Yam): S. Gary Scott (Trl); 6. Ron
Grant (SUZI' 7. Don Castro (V
